Guest Video: Peruvian Hokey Pokey!

May 10, 2013

One of the unexpected highlights of International Expeditions' Amazon River cruises[1] is always the village visits! This video from our friends at Green Global Travel[2] documents a morning spent in the tiny village of Nueva York. Since IE has been visiting the Peruvian Amazon for more than 33 years and many of our naturalists and crew are from these same villages, our guests are greeted like family stopping in from across the river when we enter a Ribereno village. And, as you can see if the video, guests are eagerly welcomed into homes, schools and the daily lives of those who live life perched on the riverboanks during our Amazon tour. But you may not realize that IE varies the villages where we stop. This ensures an authentic experience!

According to Bret Love of GGT, "Our favorite part of the Nueva York visit involved us going to the village’s tiny schoolhouse, where our guide Johnny Balarezo Malatesta presented the school with some supplies brought by IE passengers. After teaching us some Spanish words and the kids some English words, we had a fun cultural exchange in which we sang 'Cómo Estás” with them, and they sang and danced “The Hokey Pokey” with us. It was pretty hysterical to see their looks on their faces as they watched us grown-ups dancing and grinning like overgrown kids.